Minority STEM Representation is Disappearing

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Diversity favors the development of science and innovation to address problems in both marginalized and non-marginalized communities. So why does the gap persists among these communities?

Minority STEM Representation is Disappearing
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Reading time 4 minutes
Reading Time: 4 minutes

Diversity favors the development of science and innovation to address problems in both marginalized and non-marginalized communities. So why does the gap persists?

After what happened last May with George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests, every day, new cases emerge of African-American people facing discrimination as they go about daily activities, even bird watching.  These types of situations affect scientists who continuously have to do fieldwork, such as environmentalists, who often choose to wear special vests or clothing to prove that they are scientists to avoid being reported to the police.

The discrimination against George Floyd and his death led thousands of scientists to join the United States strike on June 10 to denounce the racial injustices they experience in the STEM areas (science, technology, engineering, and math). This event was supported by academic institutions and scientific societies who shut down their activities. The strikes were called #ShutDownAcademia and #ShutDownSTEM.

The fear and discrimination that scientists experience are not the only things that alienate them from science. People of color often lack access to financial resources or STEM-focused education, making their college track more difficult. Besides, the educational system is guilty of systemic racism that puts this minority at a disadvantage.

A survey by the National Science Foundation (NSF) found that in 2016 academics who identified as Black received only 6% of all PhDs in Life Sciences and less than 3% of doctorates in Physical and Earth Sciences. The analysis also found that from 2006 to 2016, in the U.S., Ph.D. graduates from this population increased by just 1% (from 6% in 2006 to 7% in 2016), a scarce increase that does not alleviate the lack of representation. Meteorologists, climate scientists, and astronomers are also affected. Only 2.1% of the 13,000 members of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) are African-American.

The National Center for Education Statistics reported that approximately 18% of black first-year students indicated that they wanted to pursue a STEM degree, which is not bad; 20% of white students stated the same. The problem comes later, as 40% of African American students end up changing their specialties, and a 26% drop out of school. The reasons range from financial issues to poor preparation by the high schools that left them feeling intellectually inferior or disadvantaged.

STEM workers

Since 1990,  STEM employment has increased by 79%, with computing being the fastest growing area at 338%. Under the circumstances, one would expect more jobs for African-American STEM graduates, but this is not the case.

The African American segment of the population comprises 11% of the United States’ workforce, but only 9% of workers perform in STEM areas. In science departments, specifically in physics, African Americans and Hispanics account for 22% of the chemical technicians. Of the atmospheric and space scientists, this figure is 10%; of environmental scientists, only 7%, and of astronomers and physicists, 6%. In terms of salary, these minorities earn 25% less than their white peers.

Minority STEM representation is falling

From 1970 to 1985, the number of African Americans enrolled in engineering in the United States tripled and continued increasing during the 1990s. The number of PH.D.s in STEM also increased in those years. The increase peaked in the early 2000s and has been falling ever since.

While the total number of black STEM graduates increased from 17,000 in 2004 to 22,000 by 2016, the increase was not proportional to the growth of total graduates in these areas, causing an increase in the representation gap (data from the NSF).

To illustrate, by 2016, black students comprised only 6.2% of science and engineering graduates in the United States, dropping 16% from the 2004 calculation. If the 2004 percentage had been preserved, nearly 31,000 black scientists and engineers would have graduated in these two professions. If we include the remainder of the STEM graduates (in math and technology), the number would be about 80,000.

The reason has generated debate among experts as some point out that the decline is due to income inequality and the lack of access to a good education. Others blame the decline of programs aimed at engaging black students in the sciences. On the other hand, educators and various politicians blame the lack of programs and policies known as “affirmative action,” which requires race to be a determining factor in admissions, hiring, and higher education retention.

According to the NSF report, affirmative action led to the end of scholarship programs focused on black students. It is expected that many students will begin to sue universities for discriminating against them in scholarship awards, and also for ending summer programs that sought to recruit minorities for science and engineering.

One case against the University of Texas led its state to eliminate race and ethnicity as a factor in admission to college, and in considerations of financial aid, retention, and recruitment. Although the decision was later overturned, the state became an example for others, such as California, to adopt the idea of prohibiting affirmative action programs.

In these two states, after stopping affirmative action programs, experts noted a decrease in enrollment in professional programs and schools, especially David Mickey-Pabello. In his thesis, he investigated the impact of affirmative action over 25 years. Mickey-Pabello concluded that banning these programs caused a 12% decrease in STEM degrees awarded to minorities, which appears to increase over time.

The problem is that this low representation has provoked a chain reaction: There are fe
wer African-American STEM teachers, so the minority students do not feel represented or have as many role models. Having no one to admire, they do not think the same ambition to enter a STEM career. Since affirmative action led to the creation of scholarship programs and summer courses for minorities interested in STEM, and these policies have ended, it is necessary to analyze what can be done in 2020 to triple the number of African American enrollments in STEM curricula.

Translation by Daniel Wetta.

Paulette Delgado

This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0